Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Artistic License

Sometimes I'm a slow learner. I know artistic license has to do with moving things around and leaving things out. I know we can't paint every leaf and twig, so we only paint something that serves to remind us of what leaves and twigs look like. Also, maybe our landscape is marred by litter. Well, we don't have to paint the litter just because it's there!


For a while, I felt kind of like I was lying when I left out things like litter. It was as if I was showing a place as more beautiful than it really is. 


It took me years to realize that all these details -- twigs, litter, etc. -- are really nothing more than elements of design. A tree, for instance, can be a mass or it can be a collection of lines. The leaves can be a mass or perhaps a pattern.  The litter itself can serve as a pattern in my composition. 



This cottage is inhabited by people who like plaster lawn ornaments. I am not a plaster lawn ornament person, so my first inclination was to leave them out. But as the composition developed, it became clear that it needed more than just the house and tree. This is a loosely-rendered painting, so that gave me the freedom to include spots of dark or light where I needed them (inspired by the lawn ornaments)... and the viewer can decide what they represent.


I used another bit of artistic license in the foreground. In reality, this was entirely asphalt. There is nothing wrong with that -- many Impressionist painters have used wet asphalt to great advantage. The problem with the asphalt in this case is that it covered about a third of the picture with a large, blank, flat shape.


This composition needed a dramatic sweep upward to the tree, so I just put that in. Who cares what it is... you can decide. 

3 comments:

  1. Oh Gayle, I so agree. We look at a scene and love it for a reason. What's a painting for but to show that reason to the viewer! If that means, changing and emphasizing, so be it.
    I really like those lovely pastel colors in your painting. Makes me think spring!

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  2. What? No plywood cutout of a gardener's butt? Come on, lady, I want ART!

    Just kidding, of course. Nice flowering tree! A cherry?

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  3. Thank you Shirley, these early spring weeks are hard to capture because of the weather but it's always tempting to try!

    Melanie, the tree is a tulip magnolia, like on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Just a few months earlier though ;-)

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